Ecological Aesthetics Study On Short Stories Of D. H. Lawrence

D. H. Lawrence is one of the most influential British novelists in the 20 th century. Although there are a lot of controversial comments on him, he made remarkable achievements in literature and his works have been paid extensive attention all over the world up to now. Lawrence lived in the early 20 th century, though the ecological aesthetics theory did not come into being yet then, his works embodied plenty of his ecological aesthetic awareness. He keeps a watchful eye on industrialization’s invasion upon the whole nature and destroying the harmonious ecological aesthetic relationships between man and nature, man and society, man and man. His sort of ecological aesthetic consciousness has admirable foresight. Lawrence loves the nature all his lifetime, and indulges in the harmony between man and nature. His eco-aesthetic thoughts are fully embodied in his short stories. Broadly speaking, ecological aesthetics includes ecological aesthetic relationship between man and nature, society and human being themselves, and is a kind of contemporary ontology aesthetics according with ecological law. The core of ecological aesthetics is harmony, which is treated as the highest aesthetic form. It reflects naturally harmonious unity of internal and external aesthetic subject. Lawrence upholds the harmonious life of syncretism between heaven and man and an integral whole with the nature. He advocates human to obey the call of nature, and return to the beautiful nature, because the nature is able to inject new vigor and vitality for human. He shows beauty and ugliness in front of people so as to make them cultivated by truth, goodness and beauty when denying the ugliness. Such aesthetics pursuit of him is undoubtedly reflected in his works.In this thesis, the author tries to make a comprehensive survey on Lawrence’s ecological aesthetic thoughts in his short stories based on intensive reading of the texts, and with his short stories as the research objects. It provides a new perspective and method for understanding and appreciating Lawrence’s short stories.This thesis is composed of five parts including the conclusion:Chapter One gives a brief introduction to D. H. Lawrence and his works, summarizes the previous studies of Lawrence at home and abroad, and the research purpose and significance.Chapter Two elaborates Lawrence’s criticism on non-ecological aesthetics containing in his short stories from three aspects, respectively criticizing the disharmony between man and nature, the alienation from man and man and the unbalanced relationship between man and self. Through the analysis, the author makes readers recognize that Lawrence owns strong consciousness of life and human care; and also he is a writer with prospective ecological aesthetic consciousness. Besides, theories about ecology and ecological aesthetics, as well as features of ecological aesthetics are also introduced in detail.Chapter Three deeply analyzes Lawrence’s ecological aesthetic features reflected in his short stories from three dimensions of natural, social and spiritual ecological beauty through analyzing the texts of Lawrence’s short stories such as The Sun, Odour of Chrysanthemums, The Shadow of Rose Garden, The Woman Who Rode Away, Daughters of the Vicar, and England, My England, The Shades of Spring, The Princess, etc. In this chapter, through studying Lawrence’s worship of the nature, advocacy of nature’s subjectivity, reenchantment and discarding wisdom, expectation for harmonious relationships between man and man, and interpreting his spiritual ecological aesthetic connotation, appealing to human to return to nature and rebuild the “poetic inhabitation”, it exerts Lawrence’s fervent pursuit for ecological aesthetic relationship between man and nature, man and man, and man and self.Chapter Four emphatically discusses the formation of Lawrence’s ecological aesthetic consciousness. It makes clear that there are four major elements forming Lawrence’s ecological aesthetic thoughts, including historical background, cultural context, family factors and life experiences.Chapter Five reaches the conclusion part, which is mainly the summary of the whole thesis. In this part, the author overviews Lawrence’s literary value of ecological aesthetics, calls for human’s environmental awareness and arouses human’s consciousness of rebuilding a beautiful natural and spiritual home and the harmonious relationship between human and nature.